Azerbaijanis in Georgia or Georgian Azerbaijanis (; ), also known as Borchali Azerbaijanis (), are Georgian citizens of an ethnic Azerbaijani background. According to the 2014 census, there are 233,024 ethnic Azerbaijanis living in Georgia.
Azerbaijanis comprise 6.5% of Georgia's population and are the country's largest ethnic minority, inhabiting mostly rural areas like Kvemo Kartli, Kakheti, Shida Kartli and Mtskheta-Mtianeti. There is also a historical Azerbaijani community in the capital city of Tbilisi (previously known as Tiflis), and smaller communities in other regions. There were some tensions in the late 1980s in the Azerbaijani-populated regions of Georgia; however, they never escalated to armed clashes.Cornell, Svante E., Autonomy and Conflict: Ethnoterritoriality and Separatism in the South Caucasus – Case in Georgia . Department of Peace and Conflict Research, Report No. 61. p. 160. University of Uppsala, .
History
Middle Ages Starting in the sixteenth century, as the Turkoman invasions devastated southern Georgia, Qizilbash tribes started migrating and settling on both banks of the Kura River in Lower Kartli, in the valleys of Algeti and Ktsia, in the Dabnisi Gorge, and in Somkhiti. By the beginning of the seventeenth century, they spread eastward into fertile lands of Karaiazi (modern-day Gardabani Municipality) and in the west, they reached Shulaveri and the Dmanisi Gorge.Bregadze, N. A. "K voprosu ob ètničeskom sostave naselenija Gruzii v XVIII v." In: V. K. Gardanov (ed.). Kavkazskij ètnografičeskij sbornik, 6: 238-253; p. 250 Their consolidation led to the formation of the Azerbaijani community.The Ancient Orient. Transcaucasia in the 11th–15th centuries by Lev Gumilev The area populated by ethnic Azerbaijanis today is known as historical Borchali (which in the form Burjoglu was originally the name of a Turkic tribe that settled there in the seventeenth century).Cumans . The Don and the North Caucasus in the 4th–12th centuries In 1604, during the reign of Safavid shah Abbas I, the Borchaly khanate (sultanate) was established here. The Sultanate of Borchali existed from 1604 to 1755 with its capital in Aghjagala"Aghjagala". Encyclopædic Lexicon, 1835. (a mediaeval fortress whose ruins nowadays lie near Kushchi, Marneuli Municipality), later turned into a mouravate (district) under the suzerainty of the Georgian kingdom of Kartli-Kakheti.«Грузинская советская энциклопедия», ст. «Борчало». Тбилиси, 1965 Furthermore, up to 15,000 Turkic-speaking families had been resettled in Kakheti at the beginning of the seventeenth century by Abbas I of Persia following a series of punitive campaigns he had launched against his Georgian subject, Teimuraz I. However, those settlers were almost entirely annihilated less than a decade later in the course of a Georgian uprising in Kakheti. The area of Azerbaijani settlement spread northward into the Tsalka Plateau throughout the eighteenth centuryPankratis Papounidis. Tsalka – Brief Historical Facts . 26 August 2010. and further westward into Bashkechid (modern Dmanisi Municipality and its vicinity) by the early nineteenth century.Н. Г. Волкова Азербайджанцы Грузии (По материалам полевых исследований 1973—1976 гг.) // Полевые исследования Института этнографии, 1976. — М.: Наука, 1978. — С. 110.
Imperial Russian rule
After Russia conquered the South Caucasus and Dagestan from Qajar Iran following the Russo-Persian War (1804–1813), the Russo-Persian War (1826–1828) and the out-coming treaties of Gulistan and Turkmenchay,Allen F. Chew. "An Atlas of Russian History: Eleven Centuries of Changing Borders". Yale University Press, 1967. pp 74. the government reorganised the Georgian kingdom into a governorate, with subdivisions of its own, five of which were referred to as the Tatar ranges (the Czarist nomenclature used the word "Tatar" for Azerbaijani), namely Borchali, Pambak, Shuragel, Kazakh, and Shamshadin.G. Galoyan. Russia and the People of Transcaucasia. Mysl, 1976; p. 187. In 1868, the latter two became part of the Elizavetpol Governorate, while the former three were incorporated into the Tiflis Governorate as the Borchali uyezd. The plains of the uyezd were mainly Azerbaijani-populated: out of 63 villages in the Borchali Plain covering 390 square versts (equal to 444 square kilometres) of land, 61 were populated with Azerbaijanis.Brockhaus and Efron Encyclopaedia: "Borchali Plain". V. 7, p. 451.
In Tiflis, Azerbaijanis have historically populated the neighbourhood of Ortachala (from Azerbaijani orta, meaning "central, middle", and Georgian ჭალა (ch'ala), meaning "green coastal area"), also known as Maidan (, meaning "square") or Sheitanbazar (, meaning "Devil's market"),Azeris . Diversity.ge. as well as Seidabad (; "city of sayyids"), the old baths district.Alexander Ostrovsky. Who Stood Behind Stalin? Olma Media Group, 2002; p. 106.
In November 1905, Tiflis almost became an arena of Armenian–Azerbaijani ethnic clashes, which had already affected and caused violent conflicts and massacres in the rest of the South Caucasus. Militia units of the Armenian nationalist Dashnaktsutiun party seized control of key positions. The Azerbaijanis were assisted by 2,000 mounted volunteers from Borchali. By three o'clock in the afternoon on 27 November 1905 there were already 22 killed and wounded.The Tiflis Leaflet. 27 November 1905. In response, social democrat labourer activists organised a peaceful rally, calling on both parties not to engage in a conflict, and managed to acquire arms from the Viceroyalty of the Caucasus in order to patrol the streets. Following mediation, both sides came to a peaceful agreement on 1 December 1905, and the Borchalians left the city.Novoe Obozrenie, 28 November 1905.
In 1919, during Georgia's brief independence, 34-year-old Parikhanim Sofiyeva, an Azerbaijani woman from the village of Karajalari near Karaiazi, won the parliament election in her constituency, becoming the first democratically elected Muslim woman in the history of the Caucasus and one of only five Georgian female MPs at the time. Matriarch of Karaiazi - Parikhanim Sofiyeva.
Soviet Georgia Under Soviet rule, Azerbaijanis constituted the third largest ethnic minority in the country (after Armenians and Russians), but their numbers grew constantly due to a high birth rate, almost twice as high as for ethnic Georgians as of 1989,Mamuka Komakhia. Ethnic Minorities in Georgia . Diversity.ge. as well as a low rate of immigration. Due to this, the numbers of Azerbaijanis rose to make them Georgia's largest minority ethnic group by 2002.
After Soviet occupation, many Azerbaijanis left Georgia for Azerbaijan proper due to Soviet policies discouraging them from working in fields like administration. In March 1944, 3,240 ethnic Azerbaijanis and Kurds living in the capital city of Tbilisi were forcibly relocated to rural parts of Kvemo Kartli, as persons "deliberately avoiding working in the agricultural sector". Only 31 Azerbaijani families were permitted to stay in Tbilisi, mostly military personnel, handicapped war veterans, and university students.
In 1944, in the midst of the population transfer in the Soviet Union, a decree was issued by the Moscow-seated government, according to which tens of thousands of residents of the southern border regions of Georgia were to be forcibly relocated to Central Asia for national security reasons. The decree made provision for the relocation of Meskhetian Turks, Kurds, Hamsheni Armenians and "others", though the latter category underlyingly referred to Azerbaijanis living in Samtskhe-Javakheti and Ajara. Georgian NKVD officers made no distinction between the Azerbaijanis and the key deportation target groups, as together with Kurds and Hamsheni Armenians, they were seen as "Turkish-oriented".Viktor Zemskov. Special Settlers in the USSR in 1930–1960. Moscow: Nauka, 2003. In 1949, it was revealed that out of almost 100,000 deportees, 24,304 were Azerbaijanis.Pavel Polyan. Not Voluntarily: History and Geography of Forced Relocations in the USSR. Memorial.
Azerbaijanis living in rural parts of the country were mainly engaged in agriculture and animal husbandry in kolkhozes and sovkhozes, as well as small-scale trade and industry. Farmer unions were assigned relatively small units of land, which, however, gave more output than most state-owned lands elsewhere in Georgia.Tom Trier & Medea Turashvili. Resettlement of Ecologically Displaced Persons Solution of a Problem or Creation of a New Eco-Migration in Georgia 1981 – 2006 . ECMI Monograph #6. August 2007 Factors such as fertile land, the proximity of the capital city, and easy access to major Soviet markets allowed Azerbaijani farmers to enjoy relatively prosperous lives, according to Soviet standards.Potential for Conflict-Related to Land Problems in Georgia's Marneuli and Gardabani Districts. A joint report by the German Organization for Technical Cooperation (GTZ) and the Caucasus Institute of Peace, Democracy and Development (Tbilisi), 2006; p. 4 Azerbaijanis also occupied many top posts in local governments across Kvemo-Kartli.
In the late 1980s, most ethnic Azerbaijanis occupying local government positions in the Azerbaijani-populated areas were removed from their positions. In 1989, there were changes in the ethnic composition of the local authorities and the resettlement of thousands of eco-migrants who had suffered from landslides in the mountainous region of Svaneti. The local Azerbaijani population, accepting of the migrants at first, demanded only to resolve the problem of Azerbaijani representation on the municipal level. The demands were ignored; later the eco-migrants, culturally different from the local population and facing social hardships, were accused of attacks and robbery against the Azerbaijanis, which in turn led to demonstrations, ethnic clashes between Svans and Azerbaijanis, demands for an Azerbaijani autonomy in Borchali and for the expulsion of Svan immigrants from Kvemo-Kartli.
Republic of Georgia Previously not prone to migrating, Azerbaijanis became the second largest emigrating ethnic community in Georgia in the early 1990s, with three-quarters of these mainly rural emigrants leaving for Azerbaijan and the rest for Russia. Unlike other minority groups, many remaining Azerbaijanis cited attachment to their home communities and unwillingness to leave behind well-developed farms as their reason to stay. Furthermore, Georgian-born Azerbaijanis who immigrated to Azerbaijan at various times, including 50,000 Georgian-born spouses of Azerbaijani citizens, reported bureaucratic problems faced in Azerbaijan, with some unable to acquire Azerbaijani citizenship for nearly 20 years.Ulviyya Akhundova. Serve but Don't Expect Citizenship. Zerkalo. 4 July 2012.
The good relations between the second Georgian President Eduard Shevardnadze and his former fellow Politburo member Heydar Aliyev, then president of Azerbaijan, ensured safety for Georgia's Azerbaijani community. However, Jonathan Wheatley characterises Shevardnadze's policy towards Kvemo-Kartli as "benign neglect", pursued through "patron-client linkages".